Dashed Hopes
by Kameka
Summary: A missing scene for the episode "Sand Trap.”


Title: Dashed Hopes  
  
By: Kameka  
  
Rating: G  
  
Spoilers: "Sand Trap" (obviously)  
  
Status: Completed  
  
Summary: A missing scene for the episode "Sand Trap."  
  
* * *  
  
"Hey, Dan, do you want to come over for dinner tonight?"  
  
Dan Lennox stopped following his partner out of the conference room and away from their friend and boss, Sophia Mason. "What?"  
  
"Do you want to come over for dinner tonight? You know, food, conversation, all sorts of good stuff like that?" Zoe Busiek turned around and raised an eyebrow at him.  
  
"You're inviting me to... dinner," he repeated, his heart beginning to thud just a little faster with the dawning of the hope he had ruthlessly pushed down when he had seen Zoe and Marcos kiss one night. "As in you cook?"  
  
She rolled her eyes and brushed her sandy blonde hair out of her face. "I do cook, Dan. It may not be up to cordon bleu standards, but it's edible. Well, usually. There was that one time with the lasagne, but that so wasn't my fault!" she stated, having been teased by not only the kids but also Marcos since the disastrous meal.  
  
"Hey, I'm not saying anything bad," he told her, lifting his hands palm out in a show of self-defense. "I'd love to come to dinner tonight. What time?"  
  
"Dinner's usually ready by six-thirty."  
  
He nodded, pleased at the invitation. "I'll be there at six, if that's okay?"  
  
"Great!" Zoe had already turned away from him and taken a few steps to her office when Dan's question made her turn back.  
  
"Just out of curiosity: what happened to the lasagne?"  
  
She looked at him for a moment before sighing, apparently deciding that he wasn't going to let her finish the conversation without him knowing. "Did you know that you're supposed to cook the noodles before you layer them with the meat and cheese?"  
  
With that she turned and went the short distance to her office, closing the glass door behind her. Dan bit down hard on the inside of his cheek, struggling not to laugh at the cooking mishap. He was jolted slightly when Sophia came out of the conference room behind him, running into his back and murmuring an apology.  
  
The black woman looked at her former partner in concern, taking in his flushed cheeks. "Are you okay, Dan?" When her only answer was a strangled sound that quickly grew to a laugh, causing associates to look over at them, and then died into chuckles, she merely shook her head and walked away.  
  
The rest of the day passed with agonizing slowness, every small tick of the minute hand a skirmish, the hour hand a battle. At long last it was quitting time and Dan jumped up from his seat, closing the file he had been reading but not really paying attention to. As he was shrugging into the jacket he had slung over the back of his chair, Zoe poked her head into his office.  
  
"Six, right?"  
  
"That's the plan," he reminded her, receiving a quick grin and a wave as she sailed in the direction of the elevators. He waited for a few minutes, forcing himself to straighten up his desk before heading home. The drive to his apartment was done on autopilot, his mind more on his partner than the rush hour traffic. The time he spent in the barren apartment passed in a blur as he went through the motions of getting ready for dinner. Put a bottle of wine into the refrigerator to cool, take a quick shower, shave, debate over what to wear; all of the normal date-type things.  
  
He left his home with time to spare, not wanting to be late for dinner. On impulse, he stopped in a florists' shop on the way and picked up a bunch of metallic-colored floral berries mixed with leaves. The wires the berries were on was a dark polished copper and the berries themselves were painted in gold and bronze: perfect compliments for the autumn hues of reds and oranges.  
  
Finally, arriving late despite trying not to, he was standing on the porch of the Busiek home, bottle of wine in one hand and berries-and-leaves in the other. The porch light was already burning brightly as the door snapped open to reveal his smiling partner.  
  
"You made it!" Her cheeks were flushed from having been in the kitchen, her hair up in a mussed ponytail, tendrils hanging against her skin that she impatiently brushed out of the way.  
  
He chuckled. "Did you really think I wouldn't? After I've asked you out for coffee how many times in the past few months, you thought I'd stand you up when you invite me to dinner?" Before she could respond, he held out the unconventional bouquet. "I brought you these," he explained a bit self- consciously.  
  
"Oh, Dan, they're beautiful!" She looked at the arrangement and bit her bottom lip slightly.  
  
"If you don't like them," he began, seeing her reaction but not understanding it.  
  
"I love them," she assured him as she stepped back to allow him into the house. He entered gratefully, the inside warmth wonderful against his skin as he left the briskness of the evening.  
  
"Where are the. kids?" He asked, pausing as he took in the two occupants of the living room. Hannah, Zoe's youngest niece, was sprawled on her stomach on the floor laboring over a packet of worksheets. Cliff, the only nephew, was sitting between the sofa and the coffee table, an open textbook above the piece of paper he was writing on.  
  
"Here, in their home," she answered, laughing slightly. "Why don't you come into the kitchen? Dinner's almost ready, just another few minutes left."  
  
He obediently followed her, sitting down on the stool she gestured to while she placed the arrangement on the counter, within sight but well out of the way of any stray liquids that might be splashed. She continued her interrupted chore, picking up a large wooden spoon and stirring a boiling pot of water. She kept glancing both at the arrangement and at him, the pleased air about her making him smile in response.  
  
The casual intimacy of the moment was interrupted by Taylor, the eldest of the Busiek children, clambering down the stairs and bursting into the kitchen to ask her aunt about going out. He listened with half an ear, paying more attention to the obvious caring Zoe felt for her charges and how animated the woman was away from work. Finally, the adult and teenager reached a compromise, Dan watching the girl go with a laugh, shaking his head as he started to open the bottle of wine he'd brought. "Work is the easy part of your day," he decided out loud.  
  
She sent him a dry smile, nonverbally agreeing with him.  
  
Finally they were seating down to dinner and Hannah was given the task of saying grace. When she began an obviously rehearsed speech about organically grown foods, he opened one eye and looked at the little girl, surprised to see her staring intently at her older brother. When he surreptitiously glanced his way, he found the teenager mouthing the words. Grace finished; they began to eat, the children continuing their two- pronged attack.  
  
It made him smile even as his stomach twisted at the realization that the invitation to dinner had been motivated by work instead of any true liking on Zoe's part. Still, looking across the table, he couldn't help but smile. So Zoe had had a work-related ulterior motive when she'd invited him to dinner. That didn't mean he couldn't take advantage of it and get to know a beautiful woman better, right?  
  
End  
  
Reviews are welcome! 


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